If you drill down through the horror movie landscape to the sub-sub-genren of British folk horror, you`ll find a common theme: Most British folk horror movies have a memorable set piece two thirds of the way through, usually involving a gruesome sacrifice or other violent death. From The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General to The Devils, these are the moments that get imprinted in your brain. In Apostle, Gareth Evansī newest Netflix film, it is the so-called `Heathen Stand` that will leave audiences everywhere squirming. Naturally, we had to chat with Evans when given the chance after the movie`s world premiere at Fantastic Fest.Evans did extensive research when it came to capital punishment and torture, all to inflict excruciating scenes of visceral horror on his characters. `It all came from research into medieval methods for capital punishment,` he said. `To be perfectly honest, thereīs a lot of nastier things out there than what we came up with. It was unbearable to read up on.`The `Heathen Stand` is simplistic in design, but horrifying in execution. It`s a simple table with crank handles for both arms and legs, and a drill on one end. `It was born out of an idea of something that could tie in to a search for purity, and purifying the sinners,` Evans said. `So the design had to make sense, that the cult would have it. It couldnīt feel too elaborate. It is something that should look ramshackle, like made off slabs of wood.``It also wanted it to fit this idea of the cult being sort of pilgrims, without prefabricated houses or villages,` the director continued. `I thought, `What would they have built all these things from? Wood.` They would have cut down some trees, but they would have also used wood from the boats they travelled on to build these houses, and that torture device. The buildings and the Stand have a ramshackle feel to them, because they were made by a community of different people with different skills coming together to do their best.`Apostle is ...
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